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25. THE PRIORY OF NUNCOTHAM

The priory of Nuncotham in Brocklesby parish
was founded, probably in Stephen's reign, by Alan
de Moncels, (fn. 1) in whose family the patronage
long continued. The possessions of the nuns
were confirmed to them by Henry II and John. (fn. 2)
They were probably never very extensive, for
at the end of the twelfth century the bishop
thought them only sufficient to support thirty
nuns. (fn. 3) By the fifteenth, century there were
only fourteen, and about the same number at
the end. The income of the house at the last
was under £50, so that it might have been
dissolved under the first Act of Suppression. As
a matter of fact, however, it stood till 9 July,
1539. (fn. 4) The prioress then received a pension of
£6; her twelve sisters annuities varying from
£2 to 30s. (fn. 5)

The priory was from the first under the jurisdiction of the bishops of Lincoln, and either
St. Hugh himself, or Hugh of Wells, drew up
a constitution for the nuns at a time when they
had apparently been living a little beyond their
means. After consultation with the master and
the prioress and convent he decided that henceforth the number of nuns should not be more
than thirty, with twelve lay brethren for the outdoor works connected with the priory. There
were to be two chaplains, besides the master,
attached to the house. The customs as to the
keeping of the convent seal and the showing of
accounts were to be the same as were usual in all
religious orders. The nuns, the chaplains, the
lay brethren, and. lay sisters, as well as their
guests, were all to fare alike as to food; only
the sick were to have anything different from the
rest. No secular guest was to be admitted for
more than one night at a time. No nun might
talk alone with a stranger, and not even the lay
sisters might live at the granges of the priory, and
away from the monastery. Visits to friends
were only to be allowed under special licence,
and in case of real necessity. No nun or sister
was to have anything of her own, or to receive
money or any other temporal property for herself
by way of contract. (fn. 6)

It is important to note the exact terms of this
constitution, partly because it was probably the
same for all Cistercian nunneries at the time, and
partly that it may be seen exactly where, as time
went on, it was less well kept. It was evidently
intended at the beginning of the thirteenth century that the nuns should be, as far as possible,
withdrawn from seculars and secular affairs; it
was also intended that their individual poverty
should be real and absolute.

As to seclusion from the world, Nuncotham
Priory was beset by the same difficulty as almost
all small nunneries at the end of the fourteenth
century. The nuns were poor; it seemed a
matter almost of necessity that they should seek
some way of increasing their income; it was
not enough merely to keep a school; and so the
common practice of receiving lady boarders was
adopted here as elsewhere. The ladies who
came to board in convents wanted to live
economically, and doubtless also to have a devotional atmosphere about them; but they did not
want actually to be nuns, nor to leave the world
quite behind them. As a natural consequence
they brought the world with them into the
cloister; and hence the frequent complaints of
bishops in visitations of the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries, that ' the conversation of seculars
disturbed the contemplation of religion.' In
1382 Bishop Bokyngham ordered nuns of this
priory, as he had done in so many other cases,
to 'amove all secular persons from their precincts '—especially Dame Joan Mounceys, who
had taken up her abode permanently in the guesthouse. (fn. 7) His injunctions were apparently not of
much avail. When Bishop Alnwick came in
1440 the priory had become in many ways
secularized. The nuns were living innocently
indeed. There were no conspicuous breaches
of rule, nor any signs of luxury or extravagance.
The choir office was not omitted or seriously
neglected, though some of the obedientiaries were
occasionally too busy to attend it. But the nuns
paid long visits to their friends, and travelled
quite a distance sometimes for this purpose.
Many of them had private rooms and gardens in
the monastery, and servants of their own to wait
upon them, (fn. 8) and occasionally in the evening one
or other would be absent from compline, because
she was so busy looking after her flowers.
Servants slept in the dormitory, and many seculars boarded in the monastery. The allowance
for clothing to each nun, however, had been
lately reduced, through the poverty of the house;
the bread and beer provided for all was of very
poor quality; and the monastic buildings were
in need of repair.

The bishop gave such injunctions as might
have been expected. Secular servants were to
be banished from the dormitories; the choir and
refectory to be regularly attended; visits to
friends were limited to three days, unless there
were great and reasonable cause for a longer
stay; corrodies were not to be granted without
leave of the bishop. (fn. 9)

Bishop Atwater's visitation in 1519 revealed
the same old difficulty. His only injunction,
however, to the nuns was to admit no seculars to
eat and drink with them, save in one public
place appointed by the prioress, and in the presence of several sisters. (fn. 10)

The visitation of Bishop Longlands in 1531 is
of greater interest. He evidently found the
prioress, Joan Thompson, living just as if the
house was her own property, and forgetting that
it was only under her charge for the benefit of
the community. She had been for some time in
the habit of keeping her own kinsfolk at the
expense of the convent. She had bestowed its
goods liberally on her brother and his children,
and granted corrodies far too freely. There had
been gaieties and Christmas sports allowed, quite
unbecoming to the dignity of a religious house.
The sisters, as of old, had been too fond of
paying visits to their friends, sometimes on
pretext of making pilgrimages. The children
brought up in the monastery were not properly
taught, and the divine office had evidently been
neglected or hurried through.

The bishop ordered the office to be properly
attended, and ' honourably and treatably sung,'
without ' haste and festination.' The prioress
was to use herself ' as a good mother, lovingly,
charitably, and indifferently to all the sisters,' and
' not to give too light credence to every tale.'
She was to keep about her none but her own
mother, and one or two others of her ' saddest
kinsfolk.' The cloister doors were to be duly
fastened at night time, children banished from
the dormitory, no ' lord of misrule' was to
be allowed in the house, nor any ' disguisings
in nun's apparel, nor otherwise.' The discipline
of the order was to be revived generally, and
friars and secular clergy were not to be too
freely admitted to the monastery. A confessor
was to be appointed for the convent, approved
by the bishop's commissary. All the ladies were
charged truly to observe their religion, and to be
obedient to the prioress, leaving all dissensions,
and ' uniting themselves to God by clean,
chaste, and religious living'; to occupy themselves when the divine service was done with
useful employments, and to flee all ill company.
These injunctions were to be read once a month
in chapter. (fn. 11)

When Dr. London took the surrender of this
house in 1539, with those of Fosse, Irford, and
Heynings, he remarked that they were wonderfully glad that they might marry, if professed
under the age of twenty-one, by the new Acts
of Parliament. (fn. 12) It is highly probable that some
of the ladies of Nuncotham were eligible for this
privilege, for ten of them lived on till 1553, (fn. 13)
and the visitation of 1531 seems to suggest that
they and their prioress were nearly all young.
Only one of them was, however, married at the
beginning of Mary's reign. (fn. 14)

The original endowment by Alan and Ingram
de Moncels included the vill of (Nun) Cotham
and divers small parcels of land, with the church
of Cuxwold. (fn. 15) During the twelfth century the
churches of Keelby, Burgh-on-Bain, and Croxton were given by other benefactors. (fn. 16) The
temporalities of the priory in 1291 were worth
£35 11S. 10d., and the spiritualities £12 13s. 4d.
at least. (fn. 17) In 1303 the prior held half a knight's
fee in Burgh and Girsby and part of a fee in
Swallow; (fn. 18) in 1346 a fraction also in Habrough
and Killingholme; (fn. 19) in 1428 (fn. 20) in addition portions of fees in Croxton, Brocklesby, and Little
Limber. In1534 the clear income of the priory
was £46 17s. 7d., including the rectories of
Keelby, Croxton, Great Limber, Burgh-onBain, and Cuxwold. (fn. 21) The total given in the
Ministers' Accounts is £59 16s. 1d. (fn. 22).

8. This, of course, was an abuse, and an almost
complete defeat of the rule of poverty; but it should
be noted that in monasteries of all orders in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the original ideal of
individual poverty had been modified by actual dispensation, rather than by laxity; and it was not a
breach of poverty, but the common custom of the
time, for all monks and nuns to have a definite yearly
allowance for clothing.